Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN!
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2017.

Pages

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - BSGO (Bright Shiny Genealogy Objects)

It's Saturday Night -

time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:1) Do your research activities get sidetracked by Bright Shiny Genealogy Objects (BGSO?) You know, an email, a record that pops up about an ancestor, something that you just have to look at?2) Provide an example of a recent BSGO and what you did with it. How much time did you spend on it? Was it worthwhile?3) How do you deal with them? Do you always follow them, or do you pick and choose, or do you have the discipline to put it aside and finish what you planned to do?4) Share your responses in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook or Google+.Here's mine:I received an email this morning from Billion Graves, which sends me notices when a record for one of my selected surnames is added to their system. This morning it was Frank G. Seaver (1866-1915), buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

I saved it, and when I had completed the tasks I had planned to do, and had two free hours before dinner to do something useful, I opened up my database to see what I knew about Frank G. Seaver (1866-1915). Note: I have a fairly large Seaver surname database and am trying to add as many Seaver persons to it as possible so it can help other researchers.I found that this Frank G. Seaver was not in my database. Okay, a challenge! Was he married and who was his spouse? Who were his children? Who were his parents? Who were his siblings? They are all Seaver persons and need to be in my database.Using online resources on Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank, I managed to piece together three generations of this family (creating a RootsMagic descendant report):1. Frank Severe was born about 1827 in Canada. He appeared in the census on 1 June 1870 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States. He married Zoa before 1860, probably in Canada.Zoa was born about 1836 in Canada. She appeared in the census on 1 June 1870 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.Frank Severe and Zoa had the following children:2i.Josephine Severe was born about 1860 in Canada. She appeared in the census on 1 June 1870 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.+3ii.Frank G. Seaver, born December 1866, Illinois, United States; married Olive E. Scott, 1890, probably Iowa, United States; died 26 April 1915, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States.4iii.Eddie Severe was born about 1868 in Illinois, United States. He appeared in the census on 1 June 1870 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

3. Frank G. Seaver (Frank-1) was born in December 1866 in Illinois, United States. He appeared in the census on 1 June 1870 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States. He appeared in the census on 1 June 1900 in Lyon, Lyon, Iowa, United States. Frank appeared in the census on 1 April 1910 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States. He died on 26 April 1915 at the age of 48 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States. He was buried after 26 April 1915 at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States.Frank G. Seaver and Olive E. Scott were married in about 1890 in probably Iowa, United States. Olive E. Scott was born on 7 July 1873 in Iowa, United States. She appeared in the census on 1 June 1900 in Lyon, Lyon, Iowa, United States. She appeared in the census on 1 April 1910 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States. Olive appeared in the census on 1 January 1920 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States. She died on 25 January 1943 at the age of 69 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States.Frank G. Seaver and Olive E. Scott had the following children:+5i.Lois M. Seaver, born 30 July 1899, Iowa, United States; married Conrad Arnholt Smith, 9 December 1922, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States; died 20 September 1981, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego, California, United States.+6ii.Dorothea Elizabeth Seaver, born 9 December 1900, Minnehaha, South Dakota, United States; married Malcolm Edgerton Selby, about 1925, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States; died 18 October 1963, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States.

I have source citations for most of the events noted above. I couldn't find any record of Frank Severe (or other spelling variations) in Canadian census records, or in U.S. census records. I couldn't find a trace of Josephine or Eddie Seaver after the 1870 census. There were no online family trees (AMT, worldConnect, MyHeritage, FS Family Tree) for the parents, Frank and Zoa Seaver. One newspaper article on Frank's death said his mother was still alive in 1915 but I couldn't find her.

I found quite a bit on Frank and Olive (Scott) Seaver in records and newspaper articles (since they settled in San Diego). I have children and grandchildren of both of the daughters also, but haven't included them herein. One of the neat things about this family line is the husband of Frank's daughter, Lois Seaver - he was a well-known San Diego banker, and the first owner of the San Diego Padres major league baseball team. I didn't know that he married a Seaver girl!

I spent about two hours tracking down the details of this BSGO. It was definitely worth it - I added another family line to the database, with source citations. This was genealogy fun. It would have been more genealogy fun if I'd been able to hook this line into another Seaver line.

There are times, usually when I'm really bored and not under deadline pressure, when I go off on the rabbit trail due to the BSGO. Other times, like today, I finished up the deadline stuff and leaped onto the BSGO - kind of a reward to have genealogy fun after completing the planned tasks for the day.

Search This Blog with Google

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

About Me

I am a native San Diegan, a graduate of San Diego State University, a retired aerospace engineer, a genealogist and a family guy.
My wife (Angel Linda) and I have two lovely daughters, and four darling grandchildren. We love to visit them and have them visit us.
Angel Linda and I love to travel to visit friends and relatives, to sightsee, to cruise or to do genealogy. Our travels have taken us all over the USA, to England, Down Under and Scandinavia.
For earlier posts (not visible on the main post list), please see the Archives listed below by month.
If you like my blog, please put it in your Favorites or Bookmarks and visit regularly.
Contact me via email at randy.seaver@gmail.com